The Mental Strategies of Top Traders: The Psychological Determinants of Trading Success

1.6. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Obviously the assessment of the ingredients of a successful portfolio manager takes into consideration a variety of characteristics. The more you consider this range of qualities in evaluating potential candidates for your firm and in assessing the ongoing performance of those already working for you, the more conversant you will become with these critical psychological dimensions of evaluating human beings both in advance and during the time they are working with you in your firm. The more practice you have, the better you will get at sizing up how these differing characteristics actually manifest themselves in individuals, and how some blend and others neutralize the impact of certain characteristics. Over time, you will develop greater sensitivity about the kinds of things that make for stellar performance, which ones are stubbornly retained, which ones can be molded by training, and which ones work best in your particular organization. This is not meant to be the Holy Grail, but it does provide a larger conceptual framework for evaluating people so that eventually you are able to hire the right kind of people who will thrive in your organization.